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The Sys Admin Newsletter
News for the
June 2003 issue of Sys Admin Magazine
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CONTENTS
1. Note from the Editor
2. Highlights of the June issue
3. Call for Papers
4. Subscription Information
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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
This issue of Sys Admin focuses on information security. In his article
about Sendmail security, Hal Pomeranz speculates that "the Sendmail
buffer overflow exploit announced in March will almost certainly be
programmed into an automated worm within the next six months." Such a
worm, he says, could do for UNIX systems what Code Red did to the
Windows world -- simply because there are so many potentially
vulnerable
UNIX systems on the network today. Pomeranz also details some
suggestions for protecting networks against this Sendmail
vulnerability.
I hope you find his article and others in this issue useful for
making your systems more secure.
Sincerely,
Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief
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The June 2003 issue contains:
Improving Sendmail Security by Turning It Off by Hal Pomeranz
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa4LGaaXX2ya2sokSb/
Pomeranz explains how to safely disable Sendmail daemons to protect
your network.
Port Knocking - Network Authentication Across Closed Ports
by Martin Krzywinski
Krzywinski describes the use of port knocking, a stealthy network
authentication system that uses closed ports to carry out
identification
of trusted users.
Freeware Forensics Tools by Kristy Westphal
Westphal examines three popular UNIX freeware tools: The Coroner's
Toolkit (TCT), The @stake Sleuth Kit (TASK), and Autopsy Forensic
Browser.
Lppbuild - AIX Package Creation by Charles Ritter
Ritter describes lppbuild, a useful tool for creating binary installa-
tion packages in AIX's LPP package format.
CFS - The Cryptographic File System by Keith McDuffee
McDuffee describes the implementation of Matt Blaze’s Cryptographic
File System to encrypt product source code on laptops.
Integrating SpamAssassin into Qmail and Sendmail by Jason Camp
Camp explains how to integrate SpamAssassin into Qmail to help
combat spam.
Using the xargs Command by Ed Schaefer
One of the most under-utilized UNIX utilities is the xargs, construct
argument lists, command. In this article, Schaefer describes xargs and
presents eight xargs 'one-liners'.
Protecting Your UNIX Systems - An Overview by Eric Cole
Cole provides a general introduction to some basic but critical
tools for protecting your data.
Stress Testing Jabber with the Jabber Test Suite by Dustin Puryear
Puryear describes how the Jabber Test Suite can be used to evaluate
how well your Jabber service is working under a given load.
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COLUMNS
Questions and Answers by Amy Rich
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa4LGaaXX2Aa2sokSb/
Solaris Resource Management - The Fair Share Scheduler
by Peter Baer Galvin
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa4LGaaXX2Ba2sokSb/
Introduction to RAID by Henry Newman
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa4LGaaXX2Ca2sokSb/
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CALL FOR PAPERS
Enterprise Administration
We're looking for practical, high-end discussions of storage,
clustering, security, and advanced networking solutions based
on your expertise and insights.
Open Source
We're looking for original uses of classic tools such as Apache,
Samba, and MySQL; custom solutions built from open source components;
and descriptions of useful open source utilities.
Scripting
Describe how you improved your life with the perfect Perl, shell,
PHP, Python, or Tcl/Tk script.
Theme Issue Proposals Due Manuscripts Due
Security Sep 5/1/03 6/2/03
Server Management Oct 6/2/03 7/1/03
Performance Tuning Nov 7/1/03 8/1/03
Solaris Supplement Nov 7/1/03 8/1/03
Software Tools Dec 8/1/03 9/2/03
We suggest that if you are interested in contributing, you first
submit a proposal to us. If the proposal seems appropriate, we'll
ask you to submit a manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted,
we'll edit it, print it, and pay you for it. For more detailed
information, refer to the author guidelines. Please address requests
for guidelines, proposals, and manuscripts to:
Rikki Endsley
Associate Managing Editor
email: rendsley@cmp.com
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ClusterWorld Conference and Expo. San Jose Convention Center,
San Jose, CA. June 23rd - June 26th, 2003.
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Newsletter Subscription Information
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Email comments to: aankerholz@cmp.com